After Irma, battered Caribbean islands brace for Category-4 Hurricane Maria

Islands in the Caribbean still reeling from megastorm Irma braced on Tuesday for a fresh battering as Hurricane Maria approached, wielding potentially lethal force.

In just a few hours, the US National Hurricane Center (NHC) hiked Maria from a Category Two to a Category Four hurricane, packing winds of 209 kilometres per hour that it forecast would strengthen further over the next day or so.

"Potentially life-threatening" storm surges, destructive waves, flash floods and mudslides threatened the Leeward Islands -- the island group that includes Martinique, Puerto Rico and the US and British Vigin islands -- the NHC said.

"The eye and the intense inner core is expected to pass near Dominica in the next few hours," the centre warned in its 2100 GMT (2:30 am IST) bulletin, describing Maria as "an extremely dangerous major hurricane".

The French Caribbean island of Guadeloupe -- the bridgehead for aid for Irma-hit French territories -- ordered all at-risk zones to be evacuated.

The order, effective from 4 pm local time, bars specific areas considered to be at risk of "flooding, submersion and landslips," according to the statement, issued by the island's prefect.

Islanders on Martinique, which is also part of France, were ordered to stay indoors under a maximum-level "violet" alert.
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S&P, Dow dip as Irma approaches US; Disney also weighs

The Dow and the S&P were slightly lower in late morning trading on Thursday as investors kept a close watch on Hurricane Irma, which was barreling toward Florida.

Indexes were also weighed down by a 3.1 per cent fall in Walt Disney shares, after the company said its Marvel and Star Wars titles would go exclusively to its planned streaming service.

Irma plowed past the Dominican Republic on Thursday after devastating a string of Caribbean islands and killing at least 11 people as one of the most powerful Atlantic storms in a century took aim at Florida.

"As the hurricane moves, investors are looking for a better grip on the damage that can be done. There are far-reaching implications now that we have back-to-back ones," said Andre Bakhos, managing director of Janlyn Capital in Bernardsville, New Jersey.

Hurricane Harvey, which hit Texas and Louisiana more than a week ago, had claimed 60 lives and caused property damage estimated as high as $180 billion.

Worries about the impact of hurricanes and weak U.S. jobless claims data sent the benchmark 10-year Treasury yields to their lowest since Nov. 10.

What is on investors' minds is that yields continue to move lower. It gives you an indication that people are still a little bit nervous - about North Korea and what the future holds for the (Trump) administration as far as what it is going to accomplish," said Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Boston Private Wealth in New York.
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Hurricane Irma wreaks havoc in Barbuda, to hit Florida in 3 days

The eye of Hurricane Irma on Wednesday crossed Barbuda with potentially catastrophic effects on this island and for the rest of the Lesser Antilles, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and other Caribbean islands, the US National Hurricane Centre (NHC) reported.

Irma of Category 5, the maximum on the Saffir-Simpson scale, crossed Barbuda at 2 am with maximum sustained winds of 295 km an hour.

At present, Irma is moving north-northwest at a speed of 24 km per hour and is located 10 km north of Barbuda and 65 km north of Antigua.

Barbuda has 545 homes with 1,645 people living, according to the 2011 census.

According to the probable trajectory pattern traced by the NHC, after crossing the Lesser Antilles, the vortex of the extremely dangerous Irma will pass near or just north of Puerto Rico by noon on Wednesday and Thursday night, Efe reports.

Once it crosses Puerto Rico, Irma will probably pass through the north of the Dominican Republic, the Bahamas, northern Cuba and arrive in Florida at the end of the week.

The weather experts anticipate Irma to stay in the category of four or five in the next 48 hours.
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